MOUNTAIN BERSERKER
Monte Rosa Traverse
4/8/2019 by Christos Kyriazopoulos
The Monte Rosa traverse, also known as ''Monte Rosa spaghetti tour'' looked as a very good idea to me and my friend Giannis as we were planning a summer climb in the Alps. Our initial plan was to walk from the Italian town of Cervinia and starting with Breithorn, climb all the 4000ers up to Dufourspitze with as much self-sufficiency as possible. That would mean 20 kilos on our backpacks on a 70-kilometer traverse of mostly glacial terrain with very exposed sharp ridges at altitude.
The view from the summit of Western Breithorn (4164 m) towards the Monte Rosa massif. Almost every peak we planned to climb in this traverse is visible here.
Starting from Plan Maison at 2500m, just above Cervinia, we headed towards the Swiss- Italian border high mountain pass called Theodulpass (3295 m). After spending the night at Teodulo refuge (3317 m), we started walking on the glaciers that lead to the ''normal route'' of Breithorn. At first the route goes through ski slopes that end on the Breithornpateau at 3900 m. This is actually the starting point for most people who climb Breithorn by using the Klein Matterhorn lift. Late in the morning we reached the summit of Western Breithorn (4164 m), the first 4000er peak of our planned route. In the east we looked at the spectacular Monte Rosa massif with all the peaks that were ahead of us. Continuing on the sometimes narrow snow ridge we walked up to Brethorn Central (4159 m) summit and then we descended to the Breithornplateau again to traverse to the east.
Rossi e Volante bivouac at 3700 m.
Our summit day was almost complete. The only thing left was to reach the Rossi e Volante bivouac, rest and sleep there. Perched on steep rocks that protrude from the glacier at 3700 m altitude, the bivouac offers fantastic views to the Ayas valley below and Castor and Pollux peaks to the east. We arrived at the bivouac early in the afternoon and after eating the typical meal of this trip (half boiled noodles and chocolate) we went to sleep quite early as we had to wake up at night.
A rope party climbing the 45° snow/ ice just before the summit ridge of Castor.
The beginning of the third day finds us starting at 3:30 am, scrambling our way down the rocks to step on the glacier again. After traversing the south flank of Pollux, we started walking up the steep slopes of Castor followed by 20 meters of climbing on 45 degree ice/ snow before the final narrow and exposed snow ridge. As we took a small break to admire the view from the summit of Castor (4228 m) we noticed the weather was changing quickly on our next goal, Lyskamm. The sunny morning gave way to dark clouds and strong winds that were rapidly approaching us. The only reasonable choice was to head towards the closest refuge before the storm hits. We traversed down the other side of Castor up to 3585 m and entered Quintino Sella refuge just before a heavy hail storm started. We stayed at the refuge for three nights as the weather was not on our side.
The sharp ridge leading to the summit of Castor (4228 m).
Finally, on the sixth day the rain and hail stopped and the sky was clear so we decided to continue our traverse. Lyskamm has an extremely narrow snow summit ridge which forms cornices on both sides, so the Lyskamm traverse right after a new snowfall didn't make any sense in terms of safety. Instead we took a long glacier walk to climb Naso del Lyskamm. Some easy mixed scrambling at first followed by more than 100 meters of 45° snow/ ice felt harder than it should because of our very heavy backpacks. After that part, a short walk led us to the summit of Naso del Lyskamm (4274 m). From there we could see that our last summits of the traverse were only one day away. We started going down the east slopes of Naso del Lyskamm and by noon we were walking on the massive Lys glacier heading towards the Felice Giordano bivouac on Balmenhorn (4167 m).
Me and Giannis on the easy scrambling part before the snow climb on Naso del Lyskamm.
The bivouac seemed to be empty when we arrived early in the afternoon. Of course the first thing to do was eat half-boiled noodles as we were starving. Then we rested a while on the summit rocks outside the bivouac, enjoying the sun as much as we could before going in to sleep as early as possible. More and more people were climbing the Balmenhorn even late in the day and as it turned out, all of them wanted to spend the night in the bivouac. Early in the night, after some negotiations with other teams as to where to sleep, we managed to get a few hours of sleep before starting for the final summit push of the traverse.
Chilling on the Balmenhorn (4167 m), just outside of the Felice Giordano bivouac.
The beginning of the seventh and final day, finds us leaving the bivouac at 3 am. Walking on the well defined trail on the glacier we climbed Ludwigshohe (4341 m) in the dark. On the somewhat narrow and windy summit ridge of the next summit, Parrotspitze (4432 m), we stood for a moment to admire the dark red colors of the twilight to the east.
Giannis on the summmit of Parrotspitze (4432 m). Lyskamm (4527 m) is in the background.
Back down on the glacier, the first light of the day gave us great views to all the surrounding peaks. After the sun came out, we started climbing Signalkuppe (4554 m). On top of this peak lies the highest in altitude building in all of Europe, Margherita hut. We took a small break in the hut to eat some chocolate and then we headed for the next peak. It was already 10 am when we reached the summit of Zumsteinspitze (4563 m) but the traverse was far from over...
View of Dufourspitze (4634 m) from the summit of Zumsteinspitze (4563 m), the highest peak we climbed in this traverse.
Our initial plan was to climb the highest peak of Monte Rosa, Dufourspitze (4634 m) via the southwest ridge which is the most direct route from Zumsteinspitze. Thinking that it was still possible, we started walking towards a very narrow snow ridge that was unstable because it was getting late and the snow had already started to melt. After a few steps we realized that the bad snow quality combined with our heavy backpacks made the risk of a fall greater than we could manage, so without a second thought we turned around and started descending towards the Grenz glacier.
Walking down the Grenz glacier.
As we started around 10:30 am, at noon we were in the middle of the glacier on a really hot day which meant some crevasse passages on the glacier would be delicate and of course numerous small avalanches and rockfalls were coming down from both sides, fortunately away from us. After a long glacier walk we finally arrived at the Monte Rosa hut at around 3 pm. Tired after an already 12-hour summit day, and with the minimum water and food, we took a short break outside of the hut. The feeling was like the summit day had ended, but still we had to walk all the way to Zermatt!
The Monte Rosa hut.
The altitude difference between the Monte Rosa hut and Zermatt is 1300 meters, which is not too much but the distance we had to cover was too long of an addition to what we had already done that day. We took the old route which goes down on the glacier and then climbs up the morraine to join the easy trail going uphill up to Riffelsee. The splendid view of cloudy Matterhorn ahead of us made us forget our fatigue, reminding us of one of the reasons why we go to the mountains. Before we reached the alpine lake of Riffelsee, the sun had already set and we still had some hours of downhill walking to reach Zermatt.
Small glacial lake on the glacier below the refuge.
Passing some alpine meadows we gradually entered the forest. As we were getting tired, thirsty and hungry we were very lucky to find a water spring near Zermatt. After we finally arrived in Zermatt (1600 m) at 12:30 am, 21 hours after leaving the Balmenhorn bivouac (4167 m), we ate everything we could from a vending machine and slept on a bench for two hours. Not the best rest you can get, especially when you have to climb Dom the following day! Even though we did not climb all the peaks we planned for, overall it was a traverse full of summits, fantastic views and also a unique way to travel from Italy to Switzerland.
Monte Rosa and Lyskamm in the background and Giannis walking uphill (and most probably hating me for proposing this traverse), as we were getting near Riffelsee.
Check out the GPS track of this traverse on Wikiloc.